Mt. Olympus

OMG, I am freakin' worn out. woke up this morning at 6:00am to go hike Mt. Olympus. I got to the trail head at 6:50 and it was already busy (WTF!?!?!) there were at least 10 people getting ready to roll when I pulled up. GAH, I hate crowds. I pushed past the last slow-pokes about 1/4 mile in, that first section certainly weeds out the people that probably shouldn't be hiking (but for some reason, I still see people I don't expect to make it 30 ft, making it to the top.). After I got past the general riff-raf, I got into my hiking zone and started to chew up the altitude. For those unaware the trail to the top of Olympus is 3+ miles long (depends on the crow and the time of day) and climbs a little over 4000 vertical feet (that's a lot! kind of like climbing stairs for a few hours). Finally breaking out of the bottom scrub oak area, I found myself about 1/2 way, by tolcat stream, it's nice to see that is has some decent water coming down. I have founds some hikers that are keeping a good pace for me, if I see them disappear then I know I am moving so, or if i catch them up, I know I am probably pushing too hard. that was nice as it gave me objectives and kept the time going by.

Once I hit the final ridge before the summit wall I left everyone around me in the dust, I wanted to bag that bitch, and i wanted it badly. So, I put 'er into 3rd gear and started the scramble to the summit, unfortunately I got stuck behind some freakin' Zoobie troop from provo taking their sweet ass time going up. Hey, Zoob, this ain't timp! move the fuck out of the way when parties are going faster than you! FFS! Once I smoked past them in a fit of all out climbing there was nothing stopping me... well, except my lack of routing finding. hah, I ended up damn near circling the summit before I found a small ramp to some boulders just shy of the top. after some fancy fanangaling I found myself on top of the mountain!! I was victorious!!! and so were about 20 other people. :( Nothing beats getting to the top of a challenging mountain to see 3-4 small kids and a herd of middle age men from the ward house. kinda takes the sweet victory away.

But anyways, I managed to beat the shite out of the mountain, stomping to the top in personal best of 2 hours 10 minutes. I was out and back by 11:20am. well before the days heat kicked in. I feel pretty damn tired right now, I also had to go help Felecia at the World Refugee day, which zapped the rest of energy away.

below are some pictures from mah hike.